The legendary Punk Pop Garage Band from San Francisco’s Summer of Love is back in business with (almost) the original guys.

The Flamin’ Groovies were the first to “drop the G” and took their name from a makeshift roach clip – marijuana cigarette or joint if you’re cool. They were the local kids and part of the 1960s San Francisco Music Scene you’ve heard so much about. That Summer of Love thing? Yeah, that. Fifty years ago – 1967.

The Flamin’ Groovies were the exception. They manifested a rough and ready texture of true Roots Rock with Eddie Cochran covers (“Something Else”) almost a nostalgic throwback and bridged the gap between the The Blues, Folk, Rock, Flower Power Psychedelic scene and the Power Pop Punk Rock scene that defined the 70s.

UK sensations Hands Off Gretel have been kicking up quite a stir as of late thanks to relentless touring, social media blitzkriegs, and favorable word of mouth worldwide. Lucky from SugarBuzz Magazine took heed upon recommendation and reached out to the band with inquires of interest in hopes to learn more about this exciting rock and roll foursome. The following transpired.

With videos that blend the awkward geek humor of Napoleon Dynamite with the eternal vintage eulogy of Wes Anderson, the precocious teenage fraternal duo of Brian and Michael D’Addario, a.k.a. The Lemon Twigs, are a promising grafting of psychedelic pop, glam, and 70’s soft rock, entering your ears and eyes with the fizzy refreshment of Coca-Cola nostalgia. Let me bring the world of The Lemon Twigs to you.

On Saturday July 29th in the year of our Lord, 2017, legions of rock and rollers of all shapes and sizes will descend upon the Whisky a Go-Go in Hollywood California for the 16th annual Cruefest Hollywood. Now some of you may say, “Why?” After all Motley Crue is done, rock and roll is dead, and nobody cares about some dumb charity fund raiser where the money goes God only knows were. Well I am here brothers and sisters to tell you, why after almost two decades, Cruefest Hollywood is more pertinent today than ever, that rock and roll is still alive and well, and where the money went.

The Thin White Duke’s private bullet train hisses into the station, slowly building over the steady funk beat of Dennis Davis and guitar of the returning Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, just jonesing until that futuristic groaning croon, hymn-like, guides us past demons, ever-trailing, “Station to Station”. From Funk Street to Disco Plaza, this express engine speeds like white light(ning) through the snow-coated 70’s, as comfortable in Harlem as in Studio 54. The bass work of George Murray and tinkling ivories of Roy Bittan lead from the energetic title track to the opulent “Golden Years”, sending a chilling Midas touch down spines since January 23, 1976. Anyone who doesn’t feel gilded and untouchable after track two isn’t alive. Anyone who is will begin to panic that they can’t slow down, for fear of death.

When recording began in 1974, David Bowie had just finished breaking up the band that had made him a Starman. While the Spiders from Mars, comprised of the megalithic talent of Mick Ronson, as well as bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey, were dismantled and scattered on rock’s pinball-lit highway, David had a monumental choice to make, as he always did in his career: Who should I be, now? Never a simple question for the man who would be The Thin White Duke in the course of an album, fate and arguably fear met at the crossroads, and bred Diamond Dogs. Halloween Jack was holding the leash, loosely.